Morgan Sterner scored a career-high 12 points as the Chestnut Hill College Women's Basketball team shook off a very sluggish start and won for the 16^th time in their last 17 games, defeating Wilmington University 69-46 Saturday afternoon at Sorgenti Arena.

The Griffins improve to 22-4 overall and 15-1 in Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) games, maintaining their one game lead over the University of the Sciences for the CACC South Division title.  Both Chestnut Hill and USciences have one game apiece to play before meeting each other in the regular season finale on February 26.  Wilmington falls to 1-19 overall and 1-14 in league play.

Sterner (Northampton, Pa.) came off the bench and made five of six field goal attempts including a three point basket as she led the Griffins along with Lindsey Lane (Havertown, Pa.) with 12 points apiece.    Lane also added four rebounds and three assists.  Emily Sekerak (New Tripoli, Pa.) and Kaitlyn Carter (Philadelphia, Pa.) were both a perfect 4-4 from the field for eight points apiece.  Carter also added three assists while pulling down five rebounds. Bri Hewlett (North Wales, Pa.) and Brianna Rider (Nottingham, Md.) led the Griffins with six rebounds apiece while Amber Washington (Bear, Del.) also added three assists to tie for team-high honors with Carter and Lane.

Chestnut Hill started off slowly, missing 12 of their first 14 shots as the Wildcats held a slim 6-5 lead for just over two minutes as the quarter was winding down.  Trinity Brittingham's (Middletown, Del.) three point basket with 1:20 to go put the Griffins back on top 8-6 and started an 8-2 run to end the quarter, capped by Sterner's traditional three-point play in the final minute, giving the Griffins a 13-8 lead.

Wilmington continued to stay within striking distance in the second quarter, closing within two before the Griffins closed out the quarter by making five of their last six shots to take a 32-24 lead at halftime.

The third quarter was by far the Griffins strongest as it has been in games all season long as they held the Wildcats scoreless for the first 7:15 while offensively producing an 8-0 run.  The Wildcats did not get a field goal until there were 17 seconds left in the period and the Griffins finished the quarter outscoring the Wildcats 16-3 to take 48-27 lead. Highlighting the quarter was an 11-point effort from Lane, including her first three point field goal of the season.

The Griffins increased the lead to as many as 27 in the fourth quarter with the Wildcats never coming any closer than 20 the rest of the way.

For the game, the Griffins shot 46% in the final three quarters to finish the game shooting 41.8% (28-67) from the field.  Defensively Chestnut Hill held the Wildcats to just 29.5% shooting (18-61) throughout the game.  Chestnut Hill had a slight edge rebounding 42-41 and committed a season-low eight turnovers while producing a nifty 18-8 assist/turnover ratio.

The Chestnut Hill College women's basketball team returns to action on Wednesday, February 23, 2022 for their final regular season home contest, hosting Georgian Court University.  Tipoff at Sorgenti Arena is set for 6:00 p.m.